Cramer: Avoid This Exercise in Futility

Mad Money host Jim Cramer explains why he thinks Tupperware is a pristine brand with an amazing balance sheet and a history of beating expectations.

If you're looking for investment ideas, you may be tempted to parse the business pages. But Jim Cramer says that's usually an exercise in futility.

Rarely does he get good ideas that way.

"There's a simple reason. Everyone reads them. So there's nothing new. If everyone has the same information at the same time what's your advantage?" said the Mad Money host.

But that doesn't mean Cramer avoids reading the newspaper – in fact, quite the opposite.

He says his best ideas come from reading the paper – "however they come from the other sections of the paper, the ones that aren't supposed to have investment suggestions or certainly don't try to make them evident because the reporters aren't business writers," he added.

That's exactly what happened this past week-end.

The investment information came out of a New York Times story that detailed sad events involving a nurse who was tricked into revealing details about Kate Middleton's pregnancy by a pair of shock-jock radio personalities.

In addition to the current developments, the article also talked about other ways in which the media had attempted to penetrate the very private lives of the British royals – in the past.

The information Jim Cramer found so compelling was contained in the following sentence.

"Four years earlier The Daily Mirror published a series of photographs of inside Buckingham Palace, showing that the Queen's cereal was brought to the table in Tupperware containers."

Cramer said for investors – the tidbit should serve as a reminder that the product has wide appeal – across almost all economic levels. "Clearly, it resonates with the most prestigious customer in the world – the Royal family."

Tupperware is part of daily life in England – for the royals – and for millions in Britain's middle class.

In fact, that appears to be the case all around the world.

That's the case, "in Latin America, where women feel empowered to start their own businesses and augment the salaries of their husbands or strike out to get rich themselves," said Cramer.

Also in Asia.

"Indonesia has become its best market, as part of the 66% of sales that is Emerging markets," Cramer added. "India's up 50%."

And there are other things to like about Tupperware.

Cramer added the company has an amazing balance sheet and the company spews cash.

During an interview with the CEO, Cramer asked if he would return capital to shareholders in the form of a special dividend, he responded by saying that the board's pondering just such an action.

Of course none of this should detract from the tragedy in England – it appears the nurse was so distraught by the trickery, she took her own life. The story is horrible.